National media react after 'lucky' Liverpool play 'purgatorial football' at Galatasaray
Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version from Echo or go back to LFC Live.
How the national media reacted to Liverpool's 1-0 defeat at Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday eveningA job left to do. Liverpool will be made to work for their place in the last eight of the Champions League after they were beaten 1-0 at Galatasaray in their round of 16 first leg clash on Tuesday evening.Mario Lemina scored the only goal as the Reds wasted a host of chances and had a goal contentiously disallowed in falling to a fourth defeat in their last 11 games.It made for an ultimately frustrating evening.
All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageLewis Steele of the Daily Mail chose not to reflect on Liverpool's plethora of missed chances and instead focused on the ones spurned by Galatasaray."When the ears of Liverpool’s players stop ringing after the dizzying noise of the most intimidating atmosphere many will experience, they might just hear a voice in their head telling them they got away with one," he reckons."The English champions lost and have a sizable task to overturn a one-goal deficit in the second leg at Anfield next Wednesday – but their road to the quarter-final could have been much tougher had Galatasaray put away a string of chances."Slot’s men lost in the unsettling, ear-splitting cauldron of RAMS Park for a second time this season as ex-Premier League midfielder Mario Lemina gave the Turkish side a precious lead but a sloppy Liverpool were lucky to not be punished further."Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian believes things will be a lot different in the second leg."The good news for Liverpool is that the situation is salvageable, when it really might not have been," he pens. He was substituted correctly after an hour for Jeremie Frimpong, signed to play at right-back."When Arne Slot dropped Salah in November it caused a diplomatic crisis on Merseyside, culminating in Salah saying he had been thrown under the bus.
"The only question is whether there will be some sort of salvation after all this."None looks forthcoming, not least because there were few, if any, redeeming features to this performance, beyond the single goal deficit that Liverpool must hope they can overturn in the second leg at Anfield."In hostile conditions, Liverpool wilted. They had chances, but the Champions League necessitates playing with grit or verve, and Arne Slot's team had neither."